A recent survey of IT staff from around the globe has revealed that over half are concerned with their future in employment, with many offering to work double or take a pay cut to stay in work.

The research was carried out by Cyber-Ark and interviewed 600 IT staff in London, Amsterdam and New York to find that half of American respondents would work an 80-hour week to stay in their job, with 27 per cent of UK interviewees agreeing with these sentiments.

Nearly half of those interviewed also admitted they would search corporate servers to find out who was affected by job cuts should the company make an announcement, with many saying they would bribe co-workers to find the information if they could not.

Vice-president of products, strategy and sales at Cyber-Ark Adam Bosnian said: "Employers have a right to expect loyalty from their workforce, however this works both ways and in these dark days, everyone is jittery especially with layoffs at the top of most corporate agendas."

Last month, Sun Microsystems made 18 per cent of its staff redundant, laying off 6,000 workers.

More than half of small businesses (53 per cent) believe that the most important benefit of outsourcing is guaranteed response times for IT support. London-based Connect conducted the research in 2007.